Joker Director Says Joaquin Phoenix Walked Off Set a Lot While Shooting

Joaquin Phoenix was fairly arduous on himself whereas making Joker. Director/author Todd Phillips states that Phoenix would usually stroll off the set. Nonetheless, he would at all times come again with the intention of topping what he had achieved earlier than. Phoenix had a troublesome time as he noticed the character he initially signed on to play change and evolve because the manufacturing went on, which meant that he needed to adapt together with the fictional Arthur Fleck to maintain up. Ultimately, the character he initially got down to play ended up as a very totally different individual.

In a brand new interview, Todd Phillips was requested what it was like working with Joaquin Phoenix. The actor has been identified to be tough to work with at occasions and he lived as much as his repute whereas engaged on Joker. However, in accordance with Phillips, that is what makes Phoenix such a terrific actor. Phillips had this to say about working with Phoenix.

“In the middle of the scene, he’ll just walk away and walk out. And the poor other actor thinks it’s them and it was never them – it was always him, and he just wasn’t feeling it… If he goes on Jimmy Kimmel and walks off after two minutes, I’d be like, ‘That’s my boy.'”

With that being stated, Joaquin Phoenix by no means walked out when he was working with Robert De Niro on Joker. De Niro was impressed with what he noticed when engaged on the film and notes, “Joaquin was very intense in what he was doing, as it should be, as he should be.” The 2 struck up an immediate working relationship centered on getting the work achieved in one of the best ways doable.

Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix labored collectively for months earlier than the manufacturing began on Joker. They acquired into heated discussions about each little element of the character, all the way down to how a lot he ought to weigh. When it got here all the way down to it, Phoenix needed to play Arthur Fleck at a standard weight, whereas Phillips needed the character to be tremendous skinny. Ultimately, the director gained and Phoenix dropped 52 kilos to get into character. He additionally realized how you can apply his personal clown make-up and began a journal, which he stuffed with one-liners and jokes that seem within the film.

Associated: Joker Director Factors Out the ’70s Classics That Knowledgeable His Clown Prince

Joaquin Phoenix and Todd Phillips took a very long time to craft the Joker standalone film, and it seems all of their arduous work has paid off. Earlier than Phoenix had formally signed on to do the film, it was rumored that Leonard DiCaprio was going to play the Clown Prince of Crime. Nonetheless, that seems to be false as Phillips says the film was written for Phoenix. Regardless of the case could also be, Joker has been getting heaps of reward from critics who’ve seen the early screenings. The interview with Todd Phillips was initially performed by New York Instances.

Matters: Joker

Author for Movieweb since 2017. Enjoys taking part in Catan when not writing about superheroes and Star Wars.